An Introduction

Welcome to Among the Antipodeans, a blog about the adventures of Jess and Darcy in New Zealand. If you've found this blog then I am willing to bet that you were told it existed by either Jess or I, and are well aware of our upcoming move to New Zealand. But you probably still have a lot of questions. For example, why New Zealand? The main impetus for our move is that I was awarded a scholarship to pursue my Masters at the University of Otago. The scholarship is called the Alan Musgrave Masters Scholarship in Philosophy; the scholarship is in honor of the pool hustler below, a long time professor and student/defender of Karl Popper.

Just a scientific realist, kicking it at snooker

The scholarship is for a year of research in anticipation of writing a Masters thesis. We jumped at the chance to have an adventure abroad, while also allowing me to pursue my academic dreams.

Where in New Zealand? We'll be moving to Dunedin which is the largest city in the Otago region of New Zealand's south island. The city itself is a very university-centric town, and the University of Otago is New Zealand's oldest. We've also already found a place to live, which is pretty exciting and also a relief. We'll be living in a beautiful house in the center of Dunedin that caters to international students.

Our house in Dunedin

When do you leave? We actually leave for Dunedin on August 21st, and arrive on August 23rd. It's going to be a heck of a long flight, but definitely worth it. Once we arrive we'll have a little while to get acclimated, as my program doesn't start to September 1st. So we'll be busy exploring the city and getting our bearings upon arrival. Jess also has a few leads on some job prospects, and will keep plugging away once we're on the ground.

This blog should be your one stop shop for information about our time in Dunedin. We'll be posting pictures and stories about all the adventures we're hoping to have. We've already started to plan some trips, and booked our tickets for an All Blacks match so hopefully we can be exciting enough to keep any readers interested! I'll also post about the type of philosophy work I'm doing from time to time, as I hope there are some people interested in reading about it (hey there Capstone friends and fellow Boulder campers!) But those posts will be clearly marked, as I know there are some of you who may not find that so interesting (hi Mom and Dad!) Hopefully this blog can serve as a way to keep closer to us while we're away, and to share in this exciting time in our lives. Thanks for reading, keep coming back, and we'll post again soon!

- Jim Darcy and Jess Mault